Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter #26

"When you play against Kasparov, the pieces start to go differently."
Evgeny Bareev

1) Shulman leads Linklater Memorial

Belarussian Grandmaster Yury Shulman leads the Charles Linklater Memorial
with two rounds to go with a score of 6.5-2.5. IM Gregory Shahade has 6 out
of 9 followed by GMs Alex Wojtkiewicz and Alexander Baburin with 5 from 8.
Levon Altounian, Cyrus Lakdawala, Michael Mulyar and Alexander Kretchetov are
all in the hunt for IM norms. Full coverage of the event, including
annotated games, round highlights and photos can be found at
http://www.chessclub.org.

2) Wojtkiewicz wins strong WBCA Blitz

Polish GM Alex Wojtkiewicz showed why he is one of the best blitz players in
the world by winning a WBCA Blitz event at the MI on March 4. "Wojo" scored
10.5-.5 in a field which included two Grandmasters, , one International
Master and one Senior Master to take home the $150 first prize. His only
draw was to second place finisher SM Levon Altounian who ended up on 10-1,
good for $100. Altounian was kept from a first place tie by National Master
Ryan Porter who was the sensation of the event beating GM Walter Browne and
IM Gregory Shahade, before losing to Wojtkiewicz in an exciting last round
game. The strength of the 12 player round robin may be gauged by the fact
that IM Shahade scored only 8-3 and Six-time US Champion Browne ended on 7-4.
Congratulations go to Felix Rudyak, rated only 1816 WBCA, who made fifty
percent by beating four players rated above him and drawing with Porter. Well
done!

3) Chess in the News

Chess has been in the local news of late. Last Friday (March 2) the San
Francisco Examiner ran a large story on the Mechanics' Institute which
featured several club members including pictures of Ewelina and Emilia
Krubnik. The story can be found online at
http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.chess.0302
The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on Tuesday about the recently
concluded Northern California State Scholastic Championship in Santa Clara.
The story can be found at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/06/MN166998.DTL

Mechanics' members did very well in this event. We hope to have a full report
from the team's coach Anthony Corrales in the next Newsletter.

4) Blohm grabs lead in Tuesday Night Marathon

National Master David Blohm defeated Victor Ossipov in round four of the
Mechanics' Institute Spring Tuesday Night Marathon to grab the lead with a
score of 4 1/2 from 5. Tied for second with four points are Ossipov, Russell
Wong and George Sanguinetti.

5) David Steel looking for matches

Expert David Steel is studying hard at UC Berkeley but still wants to play
some chess. David is looking for players rated over 2000 USCF who would be
interested in a six game match (g/45) played on several weekends. He can be
contacted at dsteel@uclink4.berkeley.edu